


A truly terrible lesson to learn

by the_scarlet_01



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Buck is a great unofficial dad, Christopher sees some messed up stuff happen, Eddie is a good dad, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Main focus is Christopher, Pre-Relationship, Teacher has a toxic relatioship, domestic abuse, domestic abuse of OMC, like I said it is more focused on Chris than Buddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:08:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21836464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_scarlet_01/pseuds/the_scarlet_01
Summary: Based on the tumblr prompt: Chris is walking down a hallway in school when he sees one of his male teachers in an appalling argument with his husband. The husband hits the teachers repeatedly before bending him over a desk. Chris runs before he sees anything else. The next day Chris doesn't want to go to school so Eddie takes him to Buck who is off. Buck immediately knows somethings not right, so he gently gets Chris to tell him. Buck barely keeps it together as he calls Eddie and asks him to bring everyone quick.
Relationships: Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 6
Kudos: 409





	A truly terrible lesson to learn

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd   
>  This has a lot of potential triggers and it handles some sensitive topics. There is a happy ending. So I hope you all enjoy it.

Christopher had spent the afternoon after school at the library. His dad was working, but Carla had a family emergency that meant she couldn’t pick him up. Eddie’s shift was only an hour longer than Christopher’s school day so Eddie had cleared it with his son’s teacher, Declan Shaw, to allow him to spend a little extra time there after school. They agreed the library might be the best place for Christopher to spend his time. The librarian loved Christopher so arranging it hadn’t been an issue. Christopher had a problem though his backpack was still in his cubby in the classroom, his library card still in it. Sure, the librarian knew him, but Christopher knew that rules were rules and he was a good boy, so he followed the rules. So he headed back to get it. He heard shouting as he got closer to the classroom. Someone was upset and he didn’t like that. Christopher frowned as he approached the room. A loud shout made him jump as he reached the door. A large man was pushing his Mr. Shaw around.

“You couldn’t even pick up a damn phone!” The man shouted.

“It was a family emergency, what was I supposed to do, let one of my student’s suffer. It is only an hour and it is half over, we’ll be home in time to start dinner before anyone gets there.” Mr. Shaw argued.

“Always putting those brats before your family. We have plans. Do they mean nothing to you? Do you not care about the commitments we made? Hell, you at least getting paid to babysit the kid at least?”

“It isn’t like I cancelled them. I’d probably have stayed late anyway to finish prepping for next week. And you know I can’t accept payment from my student’s parents, Vic. It’s unethical.”

“Unethical, they barely pay you and expect you to baby the cripple kid.”

“Don’t call him that, he’s a good kid.” Mr. Shaw’s argument and tone earned him a backhand across the face.

“You’re going to talk back to me about this? Do I need to remind you who is in the wrong here? No, fuck that.” The man shoved Mr. Shaw against the desk and bent him over.

“No! Vic, stop. Not here!”

The cruel words, violence and shouting scared Christopher enough that he hurried back to the library. He didn’t know what was happening, but it was scary. He decided he didn’t need to get the book today. He could get it the next time he went to the library. He’d just focus on drawing on the scrap paper the librarian had given him. He hurried as fast as he could to his dad the moment he saw him, hugging him tight.

“Hey, buddy.” When Christopher didn’t do anything other than continue to keep as tight a grip as possible on his father Eddie knew something wasn’t right. Eddie picked up his son to get a good look at the boy. Christopher wasn’t smiling. “What’s wrong, little man?” Eddie looked around, the librarian was shelving books on the other side of the room. He made sure he had a good grip on his and wasn’t going to lose the boy’s crutches. He looked around, but didn’t see his son’s backpack. Eddie bit back a sigh as he tucked the drawings his son made in his pocket as best he could without destroying them. They would have to get his backpack that must still be in the classroom. Christopher buried his face in his father’s neck as they got closer to the classroom. Eddie didn’t like this.

“Ah, Mr. Diaz,” Mr. Shaw said as Eddie entered the classroom. The teacher took in the firefighter’s concerned look. “Is everything alright?”

“Not sure,” Eddie said. He tried to set Christopher down but the boy’s arms tightened and he shook his head. “Okay, okay.” Eddie tried to placate his son.

“Let me get his bag,” the confused teacher said.

“Thanks,” Eddie smiled nervously. “I appreciate it.” He carefully accepted the bag. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“Probably just the longer than usual day.” Shaw tried to reassure him. “Do you need a hand getting everything to your car?”

“That would be great, thanks.” Eddie said, alarms going off in his head as he felt Christopher go tense as the teacher took his crutches. He wrapped his arms around his son to try and sooth him as best he could as he carried him. They headed out to Eddie’s truck. “You can just lean those anywhere.” Eddie said. He thanked the teacher again. He tried to set Christopher down again but the boy wouldn’t budge. “It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay.” Christopher didn’t let go until the teacher disappeared into the building. Eddie managed to get his son into the back seat and buckled up. Christopher still hadn’t said a word. Eddie took the drawings out of his pocket and put them in the backpack.

The drive home was quiet and it had dread pooling in Eddie’s stomach. When they got home he scooped his son back up and carried him into the house. He’d get his son’s thing later. He had a feeling his son needed him. He sat down on the couch and Christopher settled in his lap.

“It’s okay, we’re home. It’s just us.” He finally felt his son relax. “You alright?” Eddie asked, he felt his son nod. “Okay, did something happen at school?” He felt his son go tense again. “Want to talk about it?” Christopher shook his head. “Okay, that’s okay.” He rubbed his son’s back. “Do you want to go lay down?” He felt the small nod.

“With you in the big bed?” Christopher’s voice was quiet. It gave Eddie mixed feelings, he was glad to hear his son’s voice again, but he hated how small and scared it sounded.

“Yeah, we can do that.” He shifted so he could get a good grip on Christopher and carried him and placed him carefully in the bed. He removed his son’s shoes and his own boots. He carefully took off Christopher’s glasses and set them on the bedside table. He settled into the bed, his son clinging to his side. Yeah, he was going to have to call and make an appointment with Chris’ therapist in the morning.

Once Christopher was fast asleep Eddie ran out to the car to get Christopher’s things. He set the backpack on the table and decided he’d see if anything inside it would give him any clues as to what had happened. He knew his son’s drawings were often a good indicator of what was going on with him. He found a few drawings of firefighters and trucks, that was pretty normal for him. Then he found the wrinkled drawings from the library. The father frowned as he looked at a few drawings that were a bit darker and less like the boy’s vibrant and bright drawings. That did not bode well in Eddie’s opinion. Something was wrong with Christopher.

The next morning was even worse. Christopher refused to go to school. He hadn’t seen his son look so panicked since before they got a handle on the nightmares after the tsunami. There was no way Eddie was going to send his son to school in this condition. Eddie ran through the list of people he could get to help him. Abuela had an appointment that Tía Pepa was taking her to. Carla was still dealing with the family emergency. He grabbed his phone as he watched Christopher poke cereal around the bowl. His son had barely eaten since he’d gotten home from school. He pulled up the contact he needed and went to his bedroom to make the call.

“Hey Eddie, everything ok?” Was the first thing Eddie heard when Buck answered the phone. Eddie felt a bit bad at the sleep in his best friend’s tone.

“Not really,” Eddie admitted.

“What’s wrong? Is Christopher okay?” He could hear the concern in Buck’s tone.

“I don’t know. I mean, physically he seems okay he just…he doesn’t want to go to school.” Eddie said. “He has barely eaten since he got home. I don’t know why, but something has him upset. I’m going to call Dr. Lin when they open, but I have to work. You’re off today, right?”

“Yeah, I’m off, you need me to watch him, I can watch him, want me to come by?”

Eddie sighed. “No, I’ll bring him to you. Thanks, Buck.”

An hour later Buck was letting them into his apartment, Christopher hugged Buck tightly, earning Eddie a confused and concerned look from his best friend. They got Christopher settled on the couch, TV playing cartoons.

“His nightmares back?” Buck asked, moving into the kitchen, grabbing a juice box for Christopher from the fridge.

“He seemed to sleep fine last night,” Eddie shook his head. “I don’t know what the hell is going on Buck. He was fine when I left for my shift, he was still asleep. But when I picked him up, I literally picked him up and he wouldn’t let me put him down. His teacher had to carry his crutches to the truck. He wouldn’t let go, completely tense the whole time. Didn’t say a single word until we got home, he just wanted us to lie down in my bed, and we pretty much stayed there until dinner, which he didn’t really eat. He spoke a little bit after dinner but this morning he was crying, he didn’t want to go to school.”

“He loves school.” Buck said.

“Something must have happened yesterday, something bad.” Eddie shook his head, trying to fight back tears. He hated that he couldn’t help his son again. He felt Buck’s hand grip his shoulder.

“We’ll figure it out, okay?” Buck said. “You call the doc, we’ll be here. If I need to take him there I will.”

“Thanks, man.” Eddie smiled sadly. “I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

“I’ll always be here if you guys need me, you know that.” Buck squeezed Eddie’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of him, and maybe try and get him to eat.” Eddie was so relieved he pulled his best friend into a hug.

“Thank you.” Eddie said as Buck hugged him back.

Buck watched as Christopher took a sip from the juice box. He set it on the coffee table when the boy handed it back to him. “You hungry?” Buck asked. Christopher shook his head. “You just want to watch cartoons?” The boy nodded. “Okay, but tell me if you get hungry and we can make some breakfast.”

“Okay,” Christopher said quietly.

“Okay,” Buck nodded, taking the seat beside Christopher. The boy immediately snuggled into his side. “We can just watch cartoons.” Buck put an arm around the boy to try and comfort him. A few hours later he managed to get the boy to eat some eggs and talk about the cartoons they had been watching. When they went back to the couch to watch more cartoons Buck wrapped them both in blanket.

“You know you can tell me anything, right? You’re my favorite little guy. So if you want to talk about what happened you can, doesn’t have to be now, whenever you’re ready, but you can tell me anything. I wont get mad.” An hour or so and a few cartoons later Christopher looked up at Buck. “You okay?” Christopher shook his head.

“I saw something bad yesterday.” Christopher said. Buck shifted so he could see the boy better. 

“Something that made you feel bad?” Buck asked.

Christopher nodded. “I forgot my backpack in the classroom, I went back and…”

“What did you see, buddy?” The question seemed to open the flood gates. Christopher shed tears as he told him how he’d heard yelling and then the man was hitting his teacher and his teacher was shouting and then the man pushed him on his desk. Buck was horrified. Something bad didn’t even begin to cover it. No one should ever have to see that, let alone Christopher. He grabbed a tissue and wiped away some of tears from the boy’s red rimmed eyes and flushed cheeks, his other hand rubbing the boy’s back to comfort him.

“Can you tell me what happened next?” Buck forced himself to ask. The idea that Christopher may have seen his own teacher get raped made Buck nearly lose his scrambled eggs.

Christopher shrugged. “I…went back to the library.”

“You didn’t see anything else?” Buck asked. Christopher shook his head. “Okay.” Buck nodded, wiping Christopher’s tears again. “Thank you for telling me.” He placed a kiss on the top of the boy’s head. “You did so good, buddy. You remember what Dr. Lin said, talking helps.”

“I know.” Christopher said.

“Do you feel better now?”

“A little.” Christopher sniffled.

“Good.” Buck smiled at him. “Why don’t you pick out a movie, and I’m going get some snacks and we can just relax, sound good?”

“Yeah,” Christopher snuggled into the blanket and accepted the remote when Buck handed it to him.

Buck grabbed his phone and called Eddie the moment he was out of earshot.

“Hey, Buck, how’s-“

“Christopher saw his teacher get raped,” Buck whisper shouted into his phone.

“He what?” Eddie was really hoping he heard that wrong. Buck relayed everything Christopher had told him. “Fuck,” Eddie said. “No wonder he didn’t want to go to school. He loves his teacher. Is he okay?”

“I reminded him Dr. Lin said talking would help him feel better, and he said it helped a bit, but he’s wrapped in a blanket on the couch waiting to start a movie.”

“Okay, you go watch that movie. I’ll call Athena and talk to Bobby. We’ll make sure to get Mr. Shaw some help.”

“Call me if you get an update?” Buck asked.

“Of course.”

“Thanks Eddie.”

“Thank you for finding out what happened.”

“I just told him I was here to listen and I wouldn’t be mad. I mean I’m mad,” Buck admitted, “But not at him, never at him.”

Eddie hummed, he nodded despite the fact Buck couldn’t see him. “I hear you on that.”

Athena and another officer meet Bobby and Eddie outside Christopher’s school.

“School got out about ten minutes ago.” Eddie says as they head in the school. “Hopefully he’s still here.” He led them to the classroom. Eddie reaches up and knocks on the open door.

“Mr. Diaz? If you’re here for Chris’ homework I can get that for you, just give me a second.”

“Uh, thank you, Mr. Shaw, but that is not why I’m here.” Eddie says as the others follow him into the room. “Mr. Shaw, this is Sergeant Athena Grant and Officer Nick Woods.”

“Oh…is everything alright? Did something happen to Christopher?” The teacher asked.

“Yes and no.” Eddie says. “Physically, he’s fine, but…” He didn’t know how to say it. How do you tell someone something like this? Eddie looked at Athena for help.

“Mr. Shaw,” Athena took over for Eddie. “It has come to our attention that Christopher may have witnessed an altercation yesterday between you and another man.” None of them missed the way the teacher tensed up.

“Christopher saw?” The teacher sat down in his chair and buried his head in his hands.

“He did.” Eddie nodded.

“Oh god that means he heard-“ His eyes snapped to Eddie’s. “You know everyone here thinks Chris is the greatest. He’s smart and funny. I would never- We would never-“

“No one thinks this is your fault, especially not Christopher.” Eddie said.”But I wont lie, he was terrified at the idea of coming to school.”

“I would never let anyone hurt him, or any of my students,” The teacher said.

“I know that, but he’s not the one we’re worried about.” Eddie said, looking back at Athena. “I think my friends here have some questions for you.” The teacher looked horrified. “We really are all just worried about you, especially Chris. You’re one of his favorite teachers, and the good sergeant here loves Christopher almost as much as I do, so I’m sure she and Officer Woods can help you figure everything out. You’re a good teacher. I’d hate to see something even worse happen to you.”

The teacher cleared his throat and nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Diaz.”

“We’ll be outside.” Eddie said as he and Bobby went out into the hall to let the police do their jobs.

“That could have gone much worse.” Bobby said.

“Doesn’t make it less shitty,” Eddie sighed and leaned against the wall.

“No, but at least now things will hopefully get better.” Bobby said, patting the younger man’s shoulder. “Good thing Buck managed to figure out what was wrong.”

“Hopefully,” Eddie agreed. “Yeah, he’s good at getting Chris to talk. Some days I think Christopher likes him more than me.”

“He’s always been good with kids. Not surprised he’s even better with the ones he genuinely cares for.”

“Oh he is amazing with him. They’re thick as thieves.” Eddie grinned.

“Not surprised, not with as close as the two of you are.” Bobby smiled.

A few hours later Eddie let himself into Buck’s apartment. He scooped his son into a hug the moment he could.

“Hi Daddy,” Christopher said.

“I am so proud of you.” Eddie smiled.

“Why?” Christopher asked.

“Because you told us that someone was in trouble and it meant we could help Mr. Shaw.” The father placed a kiss on his son’s temple before setting him down.

“Is he okay?” Christopher looked up at him with worried eyes.

“He will be.” Eddie smiled. “It might take time but that mean man can’t hurt him anymore, okay? Athena made sure of it.”

“Really?” The boy’s eyes brightened some.

“Yes, really.” Eddie nodded. “You wont ever have to see that man again. He isn’t allowed around the school anymore, but he’s also going away for a long time.”

“So I can go back to school now?” Christopher asked.

“Well, Monday morning you can.” Eddie chuckled.

“Good, I didn’t get to check out the book I wanted to.”

“Well,” Eddie smiled. “We can go to the big library and see if we can find it there tomorrow, sound fun?”

“We can?” Christopher smiled up at his dad. Eddie felt warmth spread through his chest at seeing his son smile for the first time in over 24 hours.

“Of course, buddy. Why don’t you go get your things and all three of us can go get some dinner,” Eddie said. Christopher nodded and made his way to pack up the few things he had brought in his backpack.

“Everything go okay?” Buck asked.

“Yeah, not like he could really deny what happened. No point in lying. He actually was horrified Christopher had heard or seen anything. His husband said some terrible things, even about Chris.” Eddie balled his fists, but forced himself to relax. “Based on what Shaw told Athena, I’m not surprised Chris was terrified. Shaw’s husband’s a piece of work. Never should have been let near a school in the first place let alone a child.”

“The teacher going to press charges?” Buck asked.

“Yeah,” Eddie nodded. “They’re going to help him find a good divorce lawyer too.”

“That’s good.” Buck sighed, relieved to hear that they’d been able to really help the guy. “No one should have to live through that.”

“Agreed.” Eddie said as Christopher joined them. “Ready to go eat?”

“Yeah!” Christopher smiled. “Let’s go.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.  
> Feel free to send me prompts on tumblr @sortofanobsession


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